The invention relates to an offshore wind farm having a plurality of foundation elements that are situated to form the corners of a plurality of tiled hexagons, and having a plurality of floating offshore wind power plants, wherein in each case one floating offshore wind power plant within each hexagon is connected to the foundation elements forming the hexagon.
The invention further relates to a method for setting up an offshore wind farm having the above-mentioned features.
An arrangement for a wind farm made up of floating offshore wind power plants is known from DE 10 2012 007 613 A1, having tiling from a plurality of hexagonally arranged foundation elements, each floating wind power plant being anchored within the outline of a hexagon.
The object of this known technical approach was to provide a vibration-damping attachment of the floating wind power plants to offshore foundation elements in order to counteract horizontal and vertical shifts of the facilities by means of what is referred to in the patent application as a customary “soft fixing.”
The approach in DE 10 2012 007 613 A1 provides for fixing each floating wind power plant of a wind farm by means of a plurality of diagonal tensile lines and optionally also by means of a plurality of vertical anchor lines in each case, in such a way that “the tethering of the object is complete in all three dimensions, in a manner of speaking.”
Either a solid framework or solid linked chains that are held under tension by means of winches is/are provided as tensile elements or anchor lines. The floating offshore wind power plants are thus rigidly anchored in the midpoint of a hexagon, with the diagonal tensile lines of adjoining wind power plants anchored on foundation elements that are jointly used by the adjoining wind power plants for anchoring.
A disadvantage of this type of wind farm, however, is the high level of effort in setting up the wind farm and its equipment using diagonal tensile cords, whose pretensioning must be precisely defined and maintained so that the wind power plants may be installed in a fixed manner and free of vibration.
However, the rigid fixing also has the disadvantage that this type of wind farm is subject to high wear and thus a high level of maintenance effort with regard to its structures used for the anchoring. In addition, the cable winches or connecting means that connect the framework to the wind power plant and/or to the foundation are subjected to a continuous high dynamic load, and therefore require routine monitoring and maintenance.
Further anchoring systems for floating wind power plants are known from DE 20 2013 100 004 U1 and JP 2004/176626 A.
The object of the invention, therefore, is to provide a wind farm that may be easily, quickly, and cost-effectively installed, and that has a long service life with regard to its foundation elements.